The Book of Bidel Dehlavi

THE BOOKOF BIDEL DEHLAVI Selected Poems Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Mirza Abdul-Qader Bidel (1644-1721) is one of the most respected poets from Afghanistan. In the early 17th century, his family moved from Balkh to India, to live under the Mughul dynasty. He was born and educated near Patna. In his later life he spent time travelling and visiting ancestral lands. His writings in Persian are extensive, being one of the creators of the ’Indian style’. Bidel’s 16 books of poetry contain nearly 147,000 couplets. With Ghalib he is considered a master of the complicated ’Indian Style’ of the ghazal (many translated here).He had complicated views on the nature of God, heavily influenced by the Sufis. The correct rhyme-structure has been kept as well as the beauty and meaning of these beautiful and often mystical poems including ghazals, ruba’is, qit’as, bino rhymes, masnavis, mukhammas. This is the largest selection of his poems in English in the correct rhyme structure. Introduction on Life and Times and Poetry of Bidel, Forms of Poems in Persian in which Bidel composed poems, Selected Bibliography. Pages... 373. Paul Smith (b.1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets of Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and other languages including Hafez, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ’Attar, Sana’i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu’in ud-din Chishti, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Hallaj, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Ghalib, ’Iraqi, Iqbal, Makhfi, Lalla Ded, Abu Nuwas, Ibn al-Farid, Rahman Baba and many others, as well as his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children’s books and a dozen screenplays. NEW HUMANITY BOOKS amazon.com/author/smithpa